Ice Patterns (December 2019)

I returned to Sherwood Forest to start the winter tree photography but also came across some iced puddles. These are great for abstract style photography. The trapped air creates these great, and sometimes quite strange, shapes and patterns:

The water for the above shots collects in ruts in the ground, possibly from vehicles that have driven on the forest roads. Not all were frozen on this occasion as these two photographs demonstrate. The first shows the weeds that quickly grow in these puddles and the second is course grass reflected in the water:

December on the Southwell Trail - Part 2

The open farmland which runs adjacent to the Southwell Trail provides good opportunities for weather watching. A combination of sun and rain is probably the most photographically appealing as this sequence shows:

Occasionally there are some striking cloud formations and this one, I believe, is described as a herringbone sky (or possibly a mackerel sky as I have been informed...).

The highlights in the tractor tracks caught my eye for this next set of photographs as well as the mistiness in the distance which I captured using a long focal length:

December on the Southwell Trail - Part 1

Whilst I was seeing the end of autumn in the local woods, there was still some vibrant colour from the oak trees on the Southwell Trail at the beginning of December. This wouldn't last long and looking ahead in the photo catalogue most of the trees were bare and leafless only week after the following selection - fine colours on a fine sunny morning: